The Howlett Family had been founded by William Howlett, a British subject. By the 1840s, it had become the largest ranching and landowning family in western Canada, as well as one of the wealthiest among all British colonists.
During the American Civil War, William Howlett's grandson James Howlett, the new head of the family, had poured the family's wealth into supporting the Union Army. He had also heavily invested in industry and manufacturing, acquiring land and extracting energy and minerals.
After the war, they improved and perfected the gasoline internal combustion engine, bringing the age of steam power to an end.
During the First and Second World Wars, they supplied more than half of America's military hardware. Bruce Howlett worked with President Roosevelt to provide massive support for the Manhattan Project.
America's newly inaugurated 34th president, five-star general Dwight David Eisenhower, stared at the investigation report jointly submitted by the heads of the SSR, CIA, and FBI. His brow furrowed into layer upon layer of wrinkles.
He lifted his eyelids, showing a great deal of white as he glanced at the three intelligence chiefs sitting opposite him, all looking exceptionally solemn and grave. He couldn't help wondering whether they had some other motive.
As the Republican candidate—and a president who had made it to the White House with hefty political donations from the Howlett Group—Eisenhower found it difficult to set aside his personal interests when considering the matter.
"What does it mean that Bruce Howlett had a teacher-student relationship with Steve Rogers?"
The president looked at the increasingly baffling details and information in the report and asked.
"Ahem, Mr. President, not a teacher and student in the educational sense. From our comparisons, it seems more like the relationship between a godfather and his underling in an Italian crime family."
Eisenhower